Part of that money pays for our state’s colleges and universities according to one former southern politician and current Las Vegas business leader.

Northern lawmakers favor UNR and treat UNLV like a step-sister.

It’s called “The Fix” -- a higher education spending formula adopted by the 2013 session of the Nevada Legislature that was designed to eliminate funding inequities between Nevada’s colleges and universities.

Lawmakers in the northern part of the state – Democrats and Republicans – say it’s been successful.

“If you look at higher ed. funding that we just changed… we have a good formula now,” said State Sen. Debbie Smith, D-Sparks.

The number two man at UNLV, Provost John White, offers a different opinion of the plan pushed by Gov. Brian Sandoval and others.

“The proposal that went in didn’t produce a lot of advantages for UNLV,” White said.

Critics say “the fix” was the result of a process that saw Higher Education Chancellor Dan Klaich choose which expert opinions to embrace and those to be disregarded.

Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nevada, a former State Senate Majority Leader in Carson City said: “We did have an independent third-party consultant who made a number of key recommendations to act on. Some of those were ignored.”